After being accidentally released early the day before, the Overwatch League has finally announced that a 2-2-2 role lock will be implemented starting in Stage 4. Along with the news of a role lock being implemented for the Overwatch League, Blizzard also announced that the role lock will be coming to normal competitive play as well. Currently, the role lock is already live on PTR servers.
The 2-2-2 role lock has been a hotly debated topic for most of the second season of the Overwatch League due to the prevalence of GOATS team compositions. While the league stayed mostly quiet on the subject, rumors of the role lock becoming a reality began to surface during Stage 2. While the change comes just as the GOATS meta has begun dying out, it is still a welcome change by fans and pros alike.
Further rules regarding the role lock include rules preventing players from changing roles during a map. Instead, they will only be allowed to change between maps. On top of that, players will have to change seats to reflect the order of 2 DPS players, 2 tank players, and finally the 2 support players.
With the implementation of the role lock comes concerns as well. While there are concerns such as how ranked SR will be affected, the biggest concern surrounds the balance of heroes. The main examples come in the form of Roadhog and Brigitte who will both struggle due to the role lock and past nerfs. While some changes have been implemented on the PTR, it’s safe to assume most of the cast will be receiving balance changes in the coming days in preparation for the role lock.
Meanwhile, for the Philadelphia Fusion, the role lock couldn’t come fast enough as they were one of the teams that struggled with piloting a GOATS team composition which has dominated the season 2 meta.
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Overall, the role lock will allow players like the DPS duo of Jae-hyeok "Carpe" Lee and Josue/Josh "Eqo" Corona to have a bigger effect on the game as they’ll be able to play and dominate on the likes of Widowmaker and Genji.
Stage 4 of the Overwatch League is set to begin on Thursday, July 25th.